Pages

The faculty union at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) got a victory today when the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board ruled in favor of certifying the group as one collective bargaining unit.

Sources

The following is a statement of Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate on the Democratic victories in the historic Wisconsin State Senate recall elections.

“The victories (Tuesday) of Senators Wirch and Holperin cap off
successful recall elections this summer for Democrats, progressives,
moderates and independents. Democrats won more races, recalled two
Republican senators, protected every Democratic incumbent, shifted the
balance of power in the state Senate away from conservatives, and forced
Walker and the GOP to pay public lip service to moderation and
bipartisanship for the first time since they took power in January. All
of these facts show that voters gave Democrats the overall victory in
this summer’s historic senate recall elections.”

Wisconsin voters in two Senate districts will head to the polls tomorrow to vote in recall efforts against two Democratic legislators who left the state seeking refuge in Illinois as a means to delay a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union bill, which strips public workers of most of their collective bargaining rights.

Last week, Democrats won in two of the six recall elections on Republican state senators, which was one shy of the three victories needed for Dems to take control of the Wisconsin Senate. Because of this, tomorrow's recall election will make less of a difference in the control of the Wisconsin state Senate and will instead act as more of an indicator of what the 2012 election cycle could look like as well as how a formal effort to recall Gov. Walker would be received by Wisconsin residents.

Sources

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's polarizing collective bargaining law is set to go into effect today. The bill sparked four months of protests, which continue each day at Noon at the state capitol routunda where solidarity songs and chants of "Recall Walker" can be heard, and have led to the recall elections of six Republicans and three Democrats.

New data by Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows that the Democrats could take over the state Senate in Wisconsin.

On CNN yesterday, former Secretary of Labor and University of California at Berkeley professor Robert Reich said the decision plays into the hands of Republicans who have long tried to dismantle both public and private sector unions. Reich says conservatives are using the fiscal woes facing many states as the perfect excuse to move forward on their anti-unions goal now. Check out his argument in the video after the jump.